201706

Program for the June, 2017, OAS meeting

Pluto: Stepping Stone to the Stars

By Wolf Norgren

Summary:

Although Pluto and the other Kuiper Belt objects have come to the notice of mankind only in the previous century, these remote dwarf planets, thanks to recent investigations by space probes, are now thought to have dynamic geologies and possibly liquid water. In this talk, I will describe the data found by the New Horizons Probe, and the implications of these findings for the future of deep space travel.

Speaker Bio:

Wolf
Norgren has had a lifelong interest in astronomy. When he was 5, he
greatly enjoyed watching the launch of the New Horizons probe, and
has been waiting for its arrival at Pluto for much of his life. This
mission is one of the things that inspired him to become interested
in a career in engineering.